Means to an End
by Shironami
Summary: Seymour found Auron's remains and has decided to bring them back to life to use him to end life in Spira. new chapter, preparing for Lady Yuna's arrival pt. 1. Enos and "Kagan" have a discussion, and Kagan overhears Seymour's plan for marriage.
1. Chapter 1

I'm not making any money off this, I don't own any of this, just the basic idea… it's just a story by a fan for fans.

Means to an End

He looked down at the lifeless semi-rotted flesh, with clothes torn and dulled with age. He knew who this was; not personally but through word of mouth and stories. Anyone who knew anything would have recognized this man; any of the men that had associated themselves with the corpse now lying there with an aura of sad defeat. They were legends, heroes, brave men that saved lives by sacrificing their own.

"This might just work to my advantage; if I play my cards right." He says with a smirk on his face. "Bringing this cadaver back from the dead is easy work for a person of my abilities, Dark Magic that has been forgotten by my people for countless generations." He laughs out loud, "How can it be that us, the Guado, masters and caretakers of the Farplane and fiends, forgot the power to rule over the dead?" The laughing jumps up a notch, bordering on an insane cackle, "Yes, this is a good turn of events; with you, my expired friend, I will finish what I started and what I thought I might not finish."

With that he raised his staff high into the air and started chanting. The air around him getting heavier and darker with ever word he uttered. His dialogue, spoken in an ancient, derelict language, long since lost to the Guado, started getting louder and taking on a life all its own. His words left his mouth as wispy, shapeless black clouds and began take form, first as a rainbow of colored pireflies, then slowly shifting to a menacing black, as though they themselves were getting heavy and dark with evil, sucking the life out of the things around them.

After swirling around the Guado in a kaleidoscope of color they converged into a single heavy blanket and floated above the forgotten remains, inches above its body. Putting flesh on decayed bones and filling in holes that time and animals had eaten away; allowing spilt blood to pour in a reverse fountain back into its origins, pulling a rotten corpse back from the brink of non-existence. Then it suddenly dropped onto the corpse as if to smother and kill it. The man's chanting got quieter as the corpse started to move and struggle for life against the cloud of living death, until the cloud had served its purpose and the corpse was not longer just that.

The man snickered as he walked up to the body; he knew it didn't know who it was and would have no memory of dieing or even of ever having lived in the first place. It was like working with a clean slate, his to mold and train as he wished. Almost like a child, but he wouldn't need to wait for his ward to grow up and gain strength, it already had. Now it was just a matter of healing the wounds he had died from and cleaning him up. But that could be left to less important people.

He helped the dead man up, and pointed to a sword assuming it belonged to the deceased. Following the pointing hand the dead man silently walked to where the sword was wedged into the ground and effortlessly pried it from its grave.

"Very nice," the guado said, "he's strong _and_ smart… he takes orders exceptionally well also. I am _very _pleased!"

"Come, I'll take you to your new home, you won't visually fit in well, but we'll keep you well hidden. I would hate for someone to find you before it's time."

But The Guado takes the man by the arm and starts the long journey home.

That's my first chapter, tell me what you think... Please no flamers.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own FFX or any of it's characters, but any OC (however lame) belong to me.**

**Means to An End**

**Chapter 2**

_Wow, this place is a pigsty. _The handmaid thought as she went around putting things away and gathering up dirty laundry.

"Hello Zihana," a smooth voice said from behind her.

The Guado girl jumped and gave a squeak of surprise, "Lord Seymour, I didn't hear you come in. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Why as a matter of fact there is." His lips curling into a sinister smile, "I would like you to fetch Enos for me."

"Enos… yeah, I could find him for you. Is there anything else you need?" Zihana asked.

"I would like you to start a bath and bring me a fresh change of clothes… large ones, not mine" He continued to smile.

Zihana frowned, confused, then nodded and turned on her heel with a heap of dirty clothes in her arms and headed out to find Enos.

**(Insert cool chapter break here!)**

Crouching over a steaming pot of bubbling liquid that gave off quite a stench, stood a stout man with tiny, round spectacles, short, wirey, white hair and a knotty, wooden cane.

"There you are!" Zihana sighed, "I've been looking for you everywhere, Geezer. WOW, what stinks!!?"

He turned to face her, "Why, hello Zihana, never you mind the smell. It's Healer business." He pointed his cane at the girl's arms, "You shouldn't be walking around with dirty clothes."

"I haven't gotten a chance to drop them off at the launderer yet, I've been too busy searching for you're sorry butt."

"Now, now, a child your age should not speak like that – especially to one of your elders." He responded with a disapproving frown.

"Child? It's not like I'm some little kid or something," Zihana sighed. "Lord Seymour wants you, I don't know why. He also wants clothes and a bath."

"Why does he need me to help him bathe?" Enos raised an eyebrow, _Is the girl playing games with me?_

Zihana heaved a giant sigh, "I already told you Geezer, _I don't know_; he just sent me to find you. He didn't say anything, just 'fetch him,'" she said mocking the tone of the Guado lord.

The old man shook his head, "You really should mind your tongue; it's going to get you into trouble some day."

"Just go see what Lord Seymour wants." She said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Yes, yes… go take care of those clothes and fetch new ones, then start on that bath… come to think about it, why does the Lord have you fetch clothes for him, doesn't he have ones in his wardrobe?"

"Of course he does, but he wants large ones that aren't his. Don't even bother asking why with that guy, he's weird. I'm leaving now, I'll see you in Lord Seymour's rooms." She turned and left the old man alone.

"Ah, that child needs to learn to control herself before she gets us both in trouble." He put his foul liquid away and gathered up his bag of healing supplies and headed for the door.

**(I remember when they let you do cool lines here... good times, good times!)**

"You're still quite a mess, aren't you?" Seymour said smiling at his new ward.

The young man sat on the floor in old, mangled, dirty clothes covered head to foot in dried blood.

There was a sudden knock at the door of the expansive bathroom, "Who is it?" Seymour's cool voice answered.

"It's Enos my Lord. You sent for me?" He said from behind the door.

"Come in quickly, and shut the door behind you." Came a muffled response from on the other side of the door.

Enos hesitantly open the bathroom door, he had never felt totally comfortable with Lord Seymour.

Enos stopped as he stared at the mangled man sitting with one arm wrapped around his raised knee on the floor.

"Good afternoon Enos, well you see why I called you here. I'll leave you to fix and help clean up my new friend." Seymour looked up and down Enos, "Where is that girl? I told her I needed her to fetch clean clothes for me, and the bath isn't even started yet."

"She had a few chores to do, and it took her awhile to find me, my Lord. I apologize for her. Leave it to me, she'll show up soon. You just go back to your work, my Lord." Enos nodded while tapping his cane on the ground.

"Very good, I'll be back soon." Seymour was about to leave.

"My Lord, may I ask you something?" Enos asked with tension in his voice.

"Yes, of course." Seymour nodded.

"Who is he," He asked pointing his cane at the man still sitting motionless on the floor. "Where did he come from? You know he looks a lot like Lord Br-" Seymour waved his hand, cutting the old man off.

"Silence you fool. Yes, he is Lord Braska's guardian, but no one needs to know that. He doesn't know anything, and as far as anyone's concerned he's dead, this man will have a new identity; and I will use him to obtain my objectives. And you and that girl will say nothing, I'm trusting the both of you keep my secret well and hidden until I call for him." Seymour shot the old man a scathing look, silently commanding obedience.

Enos stood there before the man his mouth gaping, "Where did you get him from?"

"I found his dead body haphazardly discarded almost in the middle of nowhere on Mt. Gagazet. I thought I could use him, so I brought him back." He turned without another word and was gone, leaving a very confused old man, and the Ex-guardian in his wake.

Enos sighed and turned to the young man on the floor, "Well, let's see how injured you are."

As he was healing the man's surprisingly extensive wounds Zihara showed up with an arm full of fresh clothing, "Okay, what am I supposed to do with these?"

"Put them there," he said pointing to the marble counter.

She dropped them and turned to the old man, "Man, there's no way I can-Who's that!?" She pointed at the man still in a crumpled heap on the mosaic tiled floor.

"This is Kagan, he'll be staying with us for awhile." Enos stated, giving him the first name that popped into his mind, "Lord Seymour says you are to help me care for him. As you can see he's seriously injured and in desperate need of a bath. Return in about 20 minutes, I'll have him healed and clean by then."

The young girl frowned, "Alright, but, why is he here? I mean, look at him, he's not even Guado! Why do we have to take care of him, He's a grown man, he can take care of himself right?!"

The old man shook his head at the girl, "No he can't, not now anyway and I know he's not Guado, I'm not sure how well he is and until we can figure out how much he knows it's best to keep a close eye on him."

"So he's retarded and we've got to baby sit him?!"

Enos sighed, "He's not retarded, we just have to give him time. Be nice to him and don't let anyone see him. Not that that should be hard, since no one's supposed to see you. Just keep him with you and answer any questions he's got."

"Wait! Why do I have to keep him with me, why don't you keep him!?" Zihana cried out in indignation.

"I can't keep him with me, I mostly deal with the public, they will ask too many questions. You only deal with me and Lord Seymour." His patience was wearing thin with this girl.

"That's not true, I deal with the other handmaids and the kitchen staff as well!"

Enos sighed, "Yes, that is so; but they won't ask any questions if you tell them that Lord Seymour is having you train him to work in the mansion."

Her eyes went wide, "They'll ask why he's not Guado and working with us!!" She yelled at him.

The young man on the floor suddenly looked up at her frowning.

"Sush, I don't think he likes you yelling. Just tell them it's none of their business and go about your duties." He stated firmly.

"Fine, but I'm not taking him to the toilet! And he better not get in my way, I'm a very busy woman!" She said crossing her arms over her quite unwomanly chest.

The old man scoffed, "Now when did you suddenly become I woman? Did I fall asleep and miss it?" He laughed while gently bopping her with his old knotty cane.

"Just you wait Old Man, one of these days I'm gonna have to be changing your diapers... we'll see who gets the last laugh." Her eyes narrowed and she gave him a slightly sinister smile.

Enos helped the young man now dubbed 'Kagan' up off the floor and instructed him to take off his clothes, then turned to Zihana, "Well, considering that _you_ will be changing _my _diapers, I think I get the last laugh, ne?"

"Psh, I can hire someone to do that for me," she turned to exit the long, wide washroom, "I'll be back in 20 minutes, Geezer."

He simply nodded, now consumed with the task of helping clean 'Kagan,' wondering what Lord Seymour had in mind for the poor young man. As a Guado who still believed in the old ways he found it very disturbing that he, after giving his life to rid Spira of Sin was not allowed to rest in the Farplane.

He heard the door shut from the far end of the bathroom and noticed that Kagan seemed to understand what was being told to him, "So, after you get all clean and changed we'll send you off with Zihana. She's a little rough around the edges but she's a good girl... most of the time."

Kagan continued to undress, watching Enos as he spoke, "I guess I should give you a little information since you seem to comprehend well. First of all, my name is Enos and I'm the head Healer for the Guados. I tend to the sick and injured and use magic and potions to find cures to various things. The child was Zihana, she can be a handful but she's got a good heart. She shouldn't give you any problems, she'll also give you any information you might need as time passes, seeing as you'll be spending most of your time with her.

"There's also Lord Seymour, he's the one who found you. You just stay out of his way unless he calls on you. We don't need trouble with him. Ah, yes, almost forgot: you are called Kagan, your not Guado but you're in training to work here for Lord Seymour, Zihana will show you what to do." He nodded with a sense of finality.

Kagan got into the deep, brilliantly tiled tub and picked up the soap. As he washed Enos said, "Well that makes my job easier. You're quiet, but you function well on your own. You might even prove to be helpful to Zihana."

Just as promised, Zihana came back about 20 minutes later, "Is he dressed?" She called from the other side of the door.

"Yes, come on in..." Enos responded from inside the ornate bathroom.

Slowly she walked toward them, "Wow, he looks alive again..." She smiled, "Good work, Geezer!"

_Alive again... how little she knows..._ he thought to himself, "Yes, well... that is my job isn't it?" he returned her smile.

"I guess so, but I still don't understand why Lord Seymour brought him here in the first place. Why not take him home to his family or his friends or something like that. I don't get it." She frowned thinking with her finger on her chin.

The old man let out a huge sigh, "I couldn't figure that out either. To be honest, the Lord's got a plan for this young man, but he won't tell me. I guess it's his business; he'll tell us when it's time."

She nodded, "Alright, I like knowing nothing anyway," she sarcastically said with a shrug.

He sighed again, "Here, take him with you. He shouldn't cause you problems, just keep him with you at all times; also talk to him, he understands and it'll help him to speak faster if he hears speech more," he laughed, "and you never stop talking!"

"AH! Fine then! Come on!" She grabbed the lengthly sleeve of Kagan's long robes and dragged him behind her, "If you need us, good luck finding us!"

As Zihara hauled off Kagan, Enos could have sworn the guy gave him a very pleading look, the old man's eyes widened for a moment at the sudden display of emotion then chuckled to himself, _Good luck, kid... with that child you're gonna need it._

**(Am I the only one that can't use lines anymore!? I read other stories with them, sob!)**

Zihara pulled Kagan as she wound her way through the underground area of the mansion, "Ok, I've got to go pick up the clothes I dropped off at the washers, follow me and keep your head down; we don' t want the washer women noticing that you're not Guado... although you're a little to large to be one of us. We'll just say you're big for your age." She shrugged and made her way deeper into the bowels of the giant house.

The girl guided Kagan down another set of stairs to the lowest part of the house, it was dark, dank and crowded, "This is where the servants live and where all the extra stuff gets stored, you know like linens, furniture and stuff like that. We also have the laundry room, the servants' kitchen, the servants' common room and such. We spend most of our time down here. Everyone's pretty nice... just don't interrupt their work and you'll get alone fine. All together, including the Main Kitchen staff and Enos and me there's about 15 people who work here for the Guado Lord. Most of them either work in the Main Kitchen, do laundry or clean. I work directly for Maester Seymour, I guess that's not going to be a problem since he's the one who brought you here."

She stopped at a plain looking wooden door, turning to Kagan she said, "Alright, just keep close and don't answer any questions – I'll do that. Oh, one more thing," she reached up on the tips of her toes and pulled the hood of Kagan's robe farther down to cover his very un-Guado ears and forehead. Then she tugged at his long sleeves, "We gotta make sure no one notices your short stubby fingers. Remember to keep your head down, I'll tell them that you're shy."

She turned and slowly opened the door as Kagan lifted his hand to exam his aforementioned 'short, stubby fingers', he found nothing to be wrong with them and gave her a little shove through the door, "Hey! What was that for!?" she hissed at him.

"You're too slow... and my fingers aren't short and stubby." He responded in his low even voice.

She gave him a defiant look and said, "I guess you're not stupid..."

"Hardly, now go." He gave her another little shove.

"What's the big hurry, it's not like someone else is going to come here first and take away my clothes!" She elbowed him in the stomach.

With the second push from Kagan she was now fully in the room, which she always found to be humid and reeking of foul laundry. She groaned as the first wave of odor hit her.

"There you are Little One, we've been waiting. Your laundry is over there," the middle-aged woman pointed to a stack of fresh clothing, "come and sit with us, it's been ages since we talked." She gave Zihana a sweet smile.

"Er, I can't really, I've got to get these back to Lord Seymour's rooms." Behind her she heard a small chuckle, turning to face where the offensive noise was coming from, "What now!? I liked you better when you didn't say anything."

He gave her a funny smile and whispered, "Little One?" he chuckled again, earning him another elbow to his already sore stomach.

"Speaking of Lord Seymour, heave you heard him speaking of settling down yet? He's by no means old, but it's time he started a family," She smiled coyly at her, "I've got a beautiful, sweet daughter that I think would be perfect for him. She'd make a wonderful wife and mother." Again with that smile.

"Um... I'm not sure; I'm just the person who makes his bed and cleans his room, he wouldn't talk to me about things like that." She honestly answered.

"Oh, no, I guess he wouldn't... maybe I should talk to the Healer Enos... they seem to be kind of close." She seemed to get lost in thought after that.

"How is Enos these days?" An old washer woman asked, "I remember when we were young..." she giggled, "He was so handsome! It really is a shame that he never settled down himself. But he's got you now... I'm sure you keep him plenty busy!" The old lady gave out a hardy laugh that sounded almost musical. Apparently it was contagious since all 4 of the women were now laughing.

"Right, I guess..." Zihana was getting itchy from the heat and wanted to leave, she could never understand how they sat around all day and gossiped.

"Hey, who's that?" the youngest and newest washer woman asked, "He's very tall..." She smiled shyly at him.

"This!? Haha, his name is Kagan. I'm showing him around, you know, cause he's new." She was hot, sweaty, itchy and wanted to leave, and now on top of all that she was getting nervous.

"Kagan, huh? Nice name. If he's new where did he come from?" Said the lady who hadn't spoken since Zihana had entered, she couldn't remember her name but she was a young, soft-spoken woman who was, even self-admittedly, very beautiful.

"Uh... he was living out near the Moonflow... He was a trader there, but his business folded and now he's here..." she nodded to herself, "yeah, that's it."

"You know... now that I think about it, wasn't Kagan the one who gave you to Enos in the first place? What was that 9, 10 years ago?" Said the old woman.

"Torina, I think you're right! You were such a cute baby! Very giggly and happy... but you turned out to be so hard to potty train!" Said the lady who wanted to marry off her daughter to Seymour, "No one saw him though... I always wondered who he was!"

"Vidian, that's not nice to say with him standing right here!" reprimanded the old woman named Torina.

"I can't help it, it was always such a mystery! No one knew him, hardy anyone saw him, he came out of nowhere dropped off his baby then left again... no one's heard anything about him since." Vidian said with an air of apprehension.

"Why did you dump your baby off with some old man anyway?" Asked the soft-spoken woman in a silky voice as pretty as she was.

The old woman gasped, "Ireni, that was the rudest thing I've ever heard! Why aren't mothers teaching their children respect anymore?"

"She does kinda have a point." said the youngest woman, who looked like she was little more than a teenager.

Zihana looked up at Kagan in horror, _Why would that Geezer do this to me! I know he's not the man that dropped me off here, so why did he give him the same name?! _

Kagan dropped his gaze to meet hers, then turned to the woman, "She is my sister's daughter and after she died I didn't know what else to do with the child. Her father was too distraught to care for her and I didn't know how to. I met Enos a long time ago and figured if he didn't know what to do about the situation no one would... I never expected him to keep her." He added almost as an after thought.

_Wow, he's good! I might make it out of this alive! Seymour's not going to deny anything that makes sense, right?_

"Oh, so why did you come back here after all this time?" asked Vidian, thinking that if Lord Seymour didn't want her daughter then there were plenty of nice, young men who did. And this nice, young man was tall and obviously kind-hearted.

"As Zihana already said, I was living at the Moonflow, but when all the other traders started showing up I began to lose business and eventually folded, I remember that Enos helped me once, I was hoping he could help me again." He answered with his head down and his arms folded over his stomach, hiding his forearms in his sleeves. _I'm going to have to ask 'the Little One' later what all this means... what's the Moonflow and can one really 'fold'? Sounds painful._

Behind him Zihana let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding, "Yeah, that's about it, so... well, we'd better be off then, don't want to keep Lord Seymour waiting." She turned to leave, overjoyed to be finally leaving, "See you all later."

"You and your Uncle should come back some time soon... he can't spend all his time with children." Said Vidian, who was still thinking this man would be a great suitor.

"Uhh... uncle?" She answered confused.

Kagan gently nudged her in her side, "Yes, we probably will, won't we... Uncle?" Wow, that left a weird taste in her mouth.

"Very good, well, see you soon Zihana... Kagan." The old lady waved good bye, so did the other 3.

Zihana shut the door, thankful for the cooler, fresh air, "wow... that was crazy! I never want to go through that again." She turned to the taller man, "You know I think they thought you were pretty hot!" She laughed as they walked down the hall.

"Wonderful," he answered without any enthusiasm, "just wonderful... you do realize that now we have to tell everybody that story, don't you?"

She laughed, "No we don't... knowing those ladies, the whole mansion will know it in like an hour! It really solves a lot of our problems."

"Not really... if this gets passed from person to person by the time we hear it again I'll be a serial killer who murdered your parents and threatened to kill Enos if he didn't take you off my hands." He was being a little sarcastic but also kinda serious.

She scoffed, "No kidding...I guess we'll just have to correct any off stories that pop up. In any case we won't have to tell the same tale over and over again" She sighed, "Let's go put these away in Lord Seymour's rooms... this way," she waved him back up the stairs.

As he soundlessly followed Zihana up the stairs to the hidden part of the mansion he began to think, he knew there was something missing, something he somehow forgot. He also noted that the first thing he ever remembered was waking up and seeing that Lord Seymour man, that felt like a long time ago even though it was probably less than 24 hours ago. He felt like he was supposed to do... something he... misplaced? He shook his head trying to clear all the cobwebs that started to accumulate.

She stopped in front of the doors that lead to the banquet hall, "okay," she turned and faced him, "Same routine, head down, hide the freaky hands and let's try not to add anything to that story... it's hard enough to keep straight."

"..." He was frowning.

"Well, yeah or no?..." She waited, "Do you get it?"

He let out a very small sigh, "Yes, me and my freaky hands get it..."

"Don't look at me like that, It's not my fault your hands look like that! And don't get me started one the rest of you..." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, please don't let my feelings get in the way of your ranting, I really don't mind." His smooth, quiet voice oozed sarcasm.

She sighed, "Seriously... you need to toughen up if you're gonna be hangin out with me... cause I'm not gonna babysit you and I'm not gonna baby you either, you're a grown ass man, act like it!"

He raised an eyebrow, "And you're like 9 right...maybe you should act like it."

"Psh, no, I'm not 9, I'm 11 and you sound like Enos... who's like, what a million years old?... I'll act like I'm 11 if you _don't_ act like you're an old man! One Geezer breathing down by neck is enough. I mean you're not even old enough to be an old man!" She thought for a second, " How old are you anyway?"

He frowned, "I really don't know. How old do I look?" _I should know this shouldn't I?_

She stopped and stared at him for a minute, "Well, you look older than me and younger than the Geezer... So I'd say you're between... maybe 15 and I dunno like 85..."

He gave her a very blank look, "Wow, I don't know what I would have done without that irreplaceable information, I owe you a huge dept of gratitude..."

"Okay, I get... I'm just so helpful, right?" She laughed, "No really though, you kinda seem the same age as Blondie Bimbo. She's in her 20s... 25 or something like that."

"... Blondie Bimbo?" He frowned and almost laughed, "what?"

"Oh, I've never bothered to learn her name... she's the light haired washerwoman. The rude one." Again she rolled her eyes.

"Hm," was all he said.

"Let's go, I wanna get this done so I can eat... it's been ages since breakfast." She said while holding her stomach as if she was starving.

"Hm, I don't remember the last time I ate anything." Wondering if he had eaten anything before Seymour found him, he frowned _Not having any memory bites._

"Hurry, let's go... I really don't want to run into Seymour in his rooms, right now he should be having his daily meeting with Tromell in the Crazy Room; so he shouldn't be in his rooms. But I'm never sure how much time I have." She waved him closer to the set of doors.

"Are you ready?" She whispered, cupping her hands over her mouth leaning towards him.

"Ready for what?" He smirked, "Are we going to infiltrate the enemy's stronghold?"

"Psh, you're such a dork! Seriously, you need to think about what you say before you say it... or I might have to start smacking you."

"Smack away, Pinky-chan... it's not going to get you anywhere." He smiled serenely, still holding his hands up in his sleeves rather monk-like.

She glowered at him, "Why are you calling me that? You know I really hate that color."

He chuckled, "But your hair is pink..." he smiled and shook his head.

"I know what color my hair is!" She fumed at him, "I don't need you to tell me!"

"Are you telling me that you don't like your hair?"He asked with an eyebrow raised, smiling; he wasn't sure why, but ticking this kid off was so much fun.

"I've always hated my hair... it's so pink and happy..."She said disgusted.

"Nothing you can do about it, so live with it..." he chuckled again, "unless you want to shave off all your happy pink hair."

She gave him a scathing look, "So funny, how bout we shave off your hair...I think you'd look good bald."

He ran his fingers through his long, black ponytail, "I don't think so..."

"Oh, I know!" She hopped toward him and pulled at his robes, "We could cut your hair short and give you nicer clothes, cause you're wearing clothes that make you look way old... and you could grow some facial hair! That'd make you look cool!"

"I'm not going to let you give me a makeover..." he responded flatly.

"Ah, why not... you look so lame, I could make you so cool! We could spike your hair or take a-"

"No," he cut her off, "we're leaving me the way I am...now let's go," he pushed the doors open and stepped into the main banquet room with Zihana following him with a pout on her small face.

**I haven't updated this story in ages. I was disappointed that no one had reviewed so I thought it must be a crappy story. But I was going through my old story files and found this one and decided to pick it up again. I have a major story line for this one, but if no one reads it I probably will just drop it, I'm not going to waste my time with a story that no one's reading or reviewing. So for the love of fanfiction tell me what you think. I'm always open to suggestions and ideas.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own FFX nor am I making any money off this fanfic. I do however own any OC's. **

Means to An End

Chapter 3

By Shironami

Zihana led Kagan back down to the underbelly of the mansion, "Finally, it's time to eat!" she practically pranced down the stairs.

Kagan looked behind him at the banquet table as the door closed, "Why don't we just eat the food piled on that table...no one else is."

She stopped dead, mid-prance and spun around to face him, "Are you psycho!? We'd get killed that's why! We're nothing but the hired help, people of lesser bloodlines. We are the most easily disposed and replaced in this mansion. Remember that. Don't go causing problems... I create enough of those all by myself. Follow me, we're going to the servants' kitchen. You haven't been there yet; it's pretty interesting, just try not to get into anyone's way."

She hummed as she skipped down past the second level of the under-mansion. Kagan looked around noticing how red and angry the colors and decorations seemed to him, but he concluded that red and angry was nicer than the dank, drabness of the servant's area. They passed a few people he didn't know, still keeping his head down, he could tell that they weren't as low on the social ladder as they were. Nicer clothes, meticulously styled hair-even on the men, they walked and carried themselves differently then the servants that he had met previously. It appeared as though they were here by choice and had enough money to pay for nice things but not as rich as Seymour was.

He took a few large steps to catch up with Zihana, "Are you here because you want to be, or do you not really have a choice? Do they pay you? What happens when you don't want to work anymore?"

She raised a delicate, pink eyebrow at him, "What's with all the questions?" She sighed remembering how the Geezer had told her to answer _all_ of his inquires, she heaved a melodramatic sigh, "No, I don't have any choice, I have to work here. Geezer says I should be thankful that I even have a job."

"What about pay?" His voice was lower than normal and had a weird gravely tone that Zihana hadn't noticed before.

She laughed and slapped her forehead, "Man, the junk that you come up with! You're a riot, you know that!? Pay!" She laughed again, "Of course they don't pay me! I'm a servant, Lord Seymour owns me... good thing too, at least I know I'm always gonna eat. 'Better to be indebted to a rich man than a poor one... ' that's what Vidian always says. I dunno, she's always been shallow. He daughter's even worse! It's sad really..."

Kagan had stopped and was deep in thought, something was profoundly bothering him, but he was unable to put a word nor feeling to it. He may not have known what _it_ was, but _it_ not only bothered him but put a heavy, ugly feeling in his chest that just confused him further.

Zihana slowly took him by the arm, "What's wrong, are you alright?" She whispered to him while her big, wide, hazel eyes looked a bit worried.

He had not really noticed really how young she really was until that moment, she was a child thrown into an adults' world, full of work and responsibilities with no one to really protect her but that old man, Enos, who was by Kagan's opinion too old to be caring for her. He was getting to the age where his children should be looking after him, protecting him; but it appeared that no one was. He and this child were alone. That ugly, heavy feeling returned and clenched his chest then settled into the pit of his stomach. He suddenly realized that he too was alone.

He quietly asked, "Does Lord Seymour own me too?"

She frowned and nodded, "Yeah, he does...," she answered quietly, "All the servant's here are owned by the Guado Lord, some families have been servants here for countless generations. Some are let go to lead lives outside the mansion but most marry and have the next generation that will serve the Mansion; you know like, train them and stuff. Cooks have kids that become cooks, cleaners have kids that become cleaners and washers have kids that will become washers. It's always been like that," her voice was just a quiet as his was, she felt like she was somehow giving him bad news, "Enos was training me to be a Healer as well, but Lord Seymour took me."

"And Enos, who owns him?" He was still quiet and seemed more sad than a few minutes ago.

"Enos was owned by the man that used to be the Head Healer, him and his wife couldn't make any babies so he took Enos in when he was very small and trained him to take over after he was gone. He isn't owned by anyone now that he's grown, but his position as Head Healer makes him completely loyal to Lord Seymour and he has to do what ever he says, always..." she was starting to get a little uncomfortable with his questions.

"Who takes care of you? Enos does I know that, but anyone else?" he was still whispering, the ugly feeling just kept getting bigger.

"No, just Enos... although Lord Seymour makes sure I've got clothes and food and stuff like that, he has to. Enos used to be responsible for that cause he's like my parent, but since Seymour took me from him he does all that now."

"..." Kagan was lost in thought, milling things over in his mind that still didn't make sense.

"Are you alright?" She asked him again.

With the sound of her small, shaky voice he was jolted out of his mindless thought. He gave her a smile, "I'm fine, let's go eat now."

He continued to smile, but underneath his concern for the old man and his ward deepened. The more he heard about Lord Seymour the less he liked him... he suddenly felt like he needed to protect these two people from him. The child was too young to defend herself and Enos was getting very old and wouldn't be able to handle any physical confrontations if they arose. He didn't know why but he felt that that was a very real threat. There was something very dangerous about Seymour... something underneath the underneath, and it worried him.

He decided right then and there that Enos and Zihana would be his responsibility, if the old man didn't have children to care for him in his old age, then Kagan would and that girl needed someone younger then Enos to care for her, someone who was able to keep up with her. Enos was getting too old for that; the girl was a whirlwind of energy and she was bound to wear him out too soon. Kagan was surprised that he cared for her as long as he did; he could only imagine what she was like when she was much smaller. The image of a small pink-haired terror running though halls maniacally giggling as she broke things with Enos hobbling after her, threatening her with his cane jumped into his mind, making him chuckle a little. He somehow thought he should be guarding something and seeing as they needed to be guarded he thought it was a pretty good match.

They continued to the Servant's area and Kagan followed as she led him past the Laundry Room down yet another set of stairs. These were wide and made of solid stone, there also weren't that many, only 4 or 5 of them.

"Are we here?" He asked as she pulled him closer to the wooden door at the bottom of the short stairway, "Yeah," she responded, "Just stay out of the way and the head chef will give us our food. We're kinda late so we might have to wait while he heats it again."

"What are we eating?" He asked with almost childlike eagerness, "I haven't eaten in a really long time."

"Really, how long?"

"Oh," He seemed startled by the question, "I don't know, I haven't eaten since I woke up here." although to him if felt much, much longer.

"Oh, well, I don't know what's for lunch. We don't get specially made food. We eat what ever the chef makes-and we DON'T complain about it!" She warned him with a glare daring him to make a scene, "normally we all eat at the same time to make things easier on the cooks, you know so that they're not cooking and recooking things all afternoon; but usually there are some that are late, and if you miss a meal you're gonna have to wait till the next one. Even supper, so don't be over-late or you're gonna have to wait until breakfast. I've done it and it sucks! The chef usually gives you a 20 minute window from when all the others left, he's really nice you'll like him."

She had him follow her to a large scrubbed wooden table, on the way Kagan couldn't help but be intrigued by all the things that were happening. Some people were cutting vegetables others meat. Some were stirring huge bubbling pots of who-knew-what and others were pounding and stretching dough, while others still were putting together what Kagan thought to be some sort of dessert.

"It's busy huh?" She smiled as she sat down and waited for the chef to come and bring her food.

"Yeah, what are they doing?" He asked her while still watching the chefs and cooks, smelling the delectable aromas that wafted though the kitchen.

She gave him another of her 'wow, is he stupid' looks, "They're cooking... you know, like food, that people eat."

He sighed, "Yes, I know that, I mean why... they already made lunch, so they should be done cooking right?"

"These are different cooks and they're making supper. If they don't start it now they won't be done by the time that Lord Seymour wants to eat." she sighed, sometimes his nonstop stupid questions were too much for her.

They waited in silence until a boy about the same age as Zihana came up to the table, "Wow, you're late... Lucky too, if you were 5 minutes later the chef would have thrown you out. Who's the guy?" He nodded in Kagan's direction.

"Hey, Avan. I know, I don't want to wait until supper...I think I'd die of starvation!" Kagan scoffed and she gave him a gentle slap to put him in his place.

She smiled at the boy who was tall for his age with lanky limbs he moved with grace rather than awkwardness. He had flaming red hair that was black at the forehead; his hair was short in the back, spiked up in a messy way with the black locks long to frame his face, "This is my Uncle Kagan... he's rude, grumpy and can be _very_ inconsiderate... so if you'll excuse him now..." She gave Kagan a side-glance-of-death, "This is my best friend Avan. He's a year older than me. I've known him since we were just little kids."

"Because you're just oh-so grown up now?" He said sarcastically, not missing a beat.

She chose to ignore him, "He works here in the kitchen. His father's Head Chef. So he's learning not only how to cook and bake but how to run the kitchens smoothly and effectively. He'll be in charge of all the duties of the kitchen... not just feeding the staff like most of the kitchen workers but the special ones like those," she pointed at the cooks working, "they cook only for Lord Seymour... only the Head Chef is allowed give them orders and mess with the food they're making. The people who make our food are the apprentice cooks and the ones that Lord Seymour didn't like."

"So we get second-rate food?" He asked.

"What did you expect... it's not like were special or anything... they make good food so don't you worry."

"Yeah," said Avan, "my father taught most of them himself. They know what they're doing they're just not at the top of the pecking order so Lord Seymour doesn't want to eat their food. They'll get there eventually they just need more experience; and they get that by fixing meals for the servants and Mansion Staff." He smiled and pointed, "I'm going to go check on the bread I put in the oven, I'll be back in a few minutes. Oh, and by the way, be nice to my father... I'm not sure why but he's in a bad mood."

"Thanks for the heads-up, we'll be polite," she glared at Kagan, "won't we!?"

He turned away from the cooks when Zihana started to poke him with a disapproving frown, "Why are you poking me? What did I do now!? Don't you ever stop nagging!?"

She gave him a sound slap that made him rub the sore spot mumbling things under his breath, "If you would listen I wouldn't have to '_nag_' you at all! You're going to be nice to the chef, he's not in a good mood and I don't want to get yelled at because you say something stupid!"

"Fine, mother... you know, I hope you end up having a daughter just like you someday. See how you like it."

She was about to reply when the chef walked to the table, he dropped a loaf of bread on the table and followed that with 2 bowls of soup that he roughly put on the table, "Here... eat. Wash your own dishes the dishcleaners are on break. There's not much left so fight amongst yourselves who gets the last of it," with that he grunted something that Kagan took to be a farewell and left.

When Zihana was sure he was gone she faced Kagan again, "Wow, he really was in a bad mood, he usually says hi and talks a bit before he has to go. He didn't even smile at me. He's normally so cheerful."

Kagan raised an eyebrow, "I wonder why he was in that mood then?" He reached over and pulled his bowl closer, taking a napkin that was lying on the table and mopped up the soup that was spilled when the Head Chef nearly tossed them on the table.

With a discontented sigh Zihana followed Kagan's lead, "I don't know. Maybe he and Lord Seymour got into another fight."

Kagan dropped his spoon, "What do you mean 'fighting' do they fight often?" a deep frown creased his face and his initial worry about Seymour bubbled to the surface like an angry geyser.

"Well, not normally, but ever since Lord Jyscal suddenly died he's been acting a little different. He and the Head Chef have been at odds a little bit lately."

"Really... about what?"

She tapped her small index finger against her chin a few times, "I'm not sure, but Avan said that his father was mad at Lord Seymour about something. If he knew what it was he didn't tell me. I don't know, but I've never liked they man, he seems off... you know, not normal."

Kagan's frown deepened, "Mad?... Wait, what do you mean when you say he suddenly died?"

"Yeah, a few weeks back. He was fine, every time I saw him he was always super nice," she smiled, "sometimes he'd even give me candy! Then one day he was gone, no one knows why or what happened. Lord Seymour says it was natural and he was sick for a while but was hiding it from the public, wanting to seem strong for his people. I don't buy it. I saw him every day and he never seemed sick or anything."

"So then why did he die?" Kagan felt a strange feeling creep up his spine and he didn't like it.

She simply shrugged and continued to eat her lunch.

He let the subject drop and ignoring the spoon brought the bowl to his lips. His mind slowly churning what the child had told him. Something was up and he wanted to know what before Seymour possibly hurt someone else.

They ate in silence until Avan came back with drinks and butter for the bread the chef had put less than lovingly on the table.

"Hello all!" he said cheerfully, "I brought drinks... and butter. The last batch of bread's kinda dry. My father told Jinma that he needs to practice more. If we served hard, dry bread to Lord Seymour he'd kill us."

Something went off in Kagan's mind at that sentence, he put his bowl down and wondered if that little bell that was ringing in his mind could be a possibility. He thought for a few more moments before dismissing the idea, no one was heartless enough to kill their own father without so much as batting an eyelash.

He suddenly felt someone pulling at him, snapping out of his reverie he turned to face the offensive hand that pulled on the long sleeve of his robe.

Avan was at his side gently pulling at his arm, "Hey, you alright? You're spacing out on us."

Kagan gave a half-hearted smile, "I'm okay. Just thinking." He pulled the sleeves of his robe back down to cover his very un-guado-ish hands hoping that the kid didn't notice.

Zihana frowned knowing that his sudden mood change was related to what she had told him prior to Avan's arrival. She got the feeling that Kagan liked Lord Seymour even less than she did- if that was even possible.

As Kagan started eating again Avan and Zihana gave each other funny looks and shrugged off his odd behavior as him just being old.

"So, I'd better get going, I still have a lot of things to do before my shift in the kitchens is over." Avan got up smiling, he waved to his friend, "It was nice meeting you Mr. Kagan. I hope to see you around. Oh, and Zihana, tell Mr. Enos that I said hello. It's been far too long since I saw him."

"O-okay, I will. He's been really busy, Lord Seymour has him running around like a chocobo with its head cut off. From what he says Lord Seymour wants him to invent some new potions or something like that." Zihana smiled and waved goodbye to her friend, blushing a little. Kagan did the same – only without the blushing.

"Nice kid..." Kagan said absentmindedly, "wonder why Seymour wants him to create new potions. Aren't the old ones good enough?" He thought about this while he sipped his soup straight from the bowl; occasionally dipping a piece of buttered bread into the broth.

"Yeah, he's alright, I guess..." she answered nonchalantly, a funny smile plastered across her face.

Kagan slowly turned his head and gave her a quizzical look, "He's alright, you guess?" he tilted his head a little and scratched his chin.

She shrugged, "Yeah, whatever." she was mopping up the bottom of her bowl with the bread, her blush had vanished.

Kagan chuckled and shook his head, "You like him don't you?"

She stopped dead, the blush returned full-force with the fury of 100 suns, "WHAT!? You think... WHAT!? Your sick! That's not even close! You perv!" She was seething and looked like she was half a second from pouncing on him and beating him within an inch of his life, "GRRR! We're just friends! That's it nothing else!"

He laughed, "You like him."

She puffed up her small chest and slapped him on the arm with her little hand, "Stop it!" She looked around and hissed through her teeth , "He's going to hear you!"

Kagan gave another serene smile, "I thought you didn't like him. If you didn't then why would you care if he hears or not?"

"That's it! We're leaving! Now, pick up your bowl and wash it in the sink!" She pointed to where the sink was located. She grasped his arm and tried to heave him up.

He laughed as he washed his dishes in the large sink, "Maybe you should tell him how you feel? Who knows, maybe he feels the same way?" He was still smiling, he turned to face her and flicked the little bit of soap that was on the tips of his finger on her face.

"AH! What was that for!? Why are you being such a meanie!?" she wiped the soap off her faced and dropped her dishes in the sink in front of him, "Now you get to do my dishes too!"

He complied without complaint, "Meanie?" He questioned with a smirk, his back turned to her.

She gasped, "Are you making fun of me!?"

He shrugged a little while putting the clean dish on the metal rack to dry, "Only a little."

"AH! You're so mean! Why are you picking on me! I've always been nice to you! Psh, that's it, you're sleeping on the floor tonight!" she crossed her small arms over her chest and defiantly raised her chin.

"What do you mean, when you say 'the floor'?" He asked genuinely puzzled.

She uncrossed her arms and gave him another of her exasperation, "You. Floor. Sleep. And you better not snore or I'll get up and kick you! And if you trip me in the middle of the night while I'm on my way to the bathroom, I'll pee on you!"

He frowned, "No, I mean why would I be sleeping in your room. Shouldn't I get one of my own? And of you pee on me, I'll tie you to the ceiling and beat you with your own shoe." He was totally and utterly serious.

"You're so funny!" She laughed not taking his shoe threat seriously, "Anyway there's not room for that sort of luxury, I only get my own room cause I'm Lord Seymour's personal attendant, it's a perk! The only perk. Normally you'd sleep in one of the rooms for unmarried men. But Lord Seymour doesn't want you with the rest of the population, so you have to stay with me. You get the floor! I'm keeping the bed, I've got seniority." She flashed him a brilliant smile.

"Oh, I feel so special," he said sarcastically, "Seymour doesn't want me around people and you don't think I'm wonderful enough to deserve a bed!" He put his hands to his chest and mocked a broken heart, "Doesn't anyone love me?" then he laughed.

She rolled her eyes at him, "You're so weird! Are you done with the dishes yet, I wanna leave."

"Yeah, yeah... you're so naggy for a little girl." He washed his hands clean of the dirty water smell and rolled his sleeves back down.

Zihana reached up and took Kagan's hand, "What you suddenly love me now?" he laughed at her.

She scoffed, "NO, don't be stupid... I just don't want to loose you and have to hear it from both The Geezer and Lord Seymour. Besides, we don't want anyone finding you."

He frowned again, "Why doesn't Seymour want anyone to see me? I feel like he's keeping me hidden away." He went into serious mode again.

"That's cause he is. That's what he said, that Enos and me had to keep you hidden for when he was going to use you." Her free hand was on her chin and she was looking up trying to remember just what the Guado Lord had said.

"Use me?" His voice was deep and gravely, it almost scared Zihana, she was beginning to feel that there was a side of this mysterious man that she knew nothing about, "What is he going to use me for? Does he know who I really am?" She simply shrugged, wanting to get off this subject as soon as possible. Whenever he started to go into the "Crazy Kagan" mode as she called it, it's like he became a different person. Stern and serious, always calculating and asking weird questions, when he got like this she wished Kagen would go back to normal, back to the Kagan she knows, _her_ Kagan.

"Um, let's just go now, we've got lot's of other things to do today." She said hoping to quickly change the subject, wishing that he'd pop back into Normal Kagan mode.

"Oh," he said suddenly back to reality, "like what?"

"Um," she said trying to make up stuff they had to do, truth be told she had nothing to do until she had to take her studies with Papa Enos later this afternoon. Then it was dinner and then she was free until bedtime. Seymour didn't need her to tuck him in or read him a story and she already did his laundry, cleaned his room and changed his bedclothes. He was too old to have her take care of him, she mainly took care of his rooms and any errands he asked her to do.

"Well," she continued, "I don't really have to do anything until my Basic Studies class with Pa-er... Enos... But we can get you settled into my room, I guess."

"So that's the 'lots of stuff to do'? Sounds kinda boring to me," he simply shrugged and scratched his chin a little then pulled the hood down over his forehead more.

She rested her arms on the top of her pink head, "Well, I'm sorry if my life isn't as exciting as you'd hoped. Live with it, cause it's the life you're going to be leading for a while."

He sighed, "I just feel like I should be somewhere else," a sad expression crossed over his face.

Zihana felt bad, "I'm sorry... Hey, maybe somewhere you've got a family, you know like parents and babies and stuff! We'll find them! Then you'll be where you belong! Oh," she looked down, "but then you wouldn't be here with me and Papa Enos," she looked up at him gingerly, "I know it hasn't been long, but I like having you here, and so does The Geezer. But your family needs you more than we do."

He smiled at her and ruffled her hair, "I don't have any family, and I like being here. Don't worry Runt, I'm not going anywhere..." he suddenly shifted back to Crazy Kagan, "That is until Seymour does whatever he's planning to do with me."

Her smile faded, "How do you know that you don't have a family? You can't remember anything else. Maybe you just don't remember them. And we don't know that what Lord Seymour wants from you is bad! He's a Maester of Yevon, maybe he wants you for something that has to do with that."

He let out something that sounded like a low growl, "Unlikely, besides I don't want anything to do with the Church of Yevon anyway.

"Why not? Lord Jyscal brought Yeven to the Guado, it brought us peace and tranquility."

"Yevon is not what it appears to be, anyway I'm tired of being here. Where's your room?"

This confused her greatly. What could he mean when he said that Yevon wasn't was it appeared? She chalked it up to him being old and found in the middle of no where without a memory. She was just glad that he was being himself and not that other weirder version of himself. For some reason when he got like that he scared her.

She gave him a huge smile, "It's this way. Oh! You wanna hear some good gossip!?" She bounced up and down excited she knew something that he didn't.

"I don't really listen to gossip. I don't know why but it just rubs me the wrong way." he answered off-handedly.

"Oh, but it's not really gossip. Think of it more like news!" she grinned again and squeezed his hand, it was fun to know something that an adult didn't, she was always let out of the loop and when she did hear something it was normally already old.

He sighed quietly, "I suppose, what harm could it do?"

She bounced again, pulling his arm uncomfortably as she did so, "Okay! I head the washerwomen talking yesterday and they said that Lady Yuna is continuing her pilgrimage this way and she should be here soon. Apparently she and Lord Seymour met a few days ago during that Mi'han Mission, or whatever they called it. I heard him tell his advisor Tromell that he was very taken with her and plans on asking for her hand in marriage when she arrives!"

She waited expectantly for his response, when she got it she was less than thrilled, "I don't see how this has to do with either of us. But this Yuna woman you speak of sounds familiar. Who is she?" he continued to walk forward, his arms hidden up his into his sleeves monk-style.

She hopped a few quick steps to catch up to him, "She's one of the newest Summoners. She's the High Summoner, Lord Braska's daughter, and also the most famous of the new summoners. I hear she's a lot like her father, and she comes from Besaid. I don't know much more than that, we can talk to her in person when she arrives." she was getting excited now, "Not very many people come to Guadosalam anymore, only summoners on pilgrimage. It'll be fun to have visitors, I hear she's got a lot of guradians too!" she clapped her hands happily.

He simply nodded, a slight unhappy look on his face.

"hey, what's wrong! You should be happy!" she reached up and pulled his arms apart and grasped his hand again.

"Nothing, I'm just a little worried. It's nothing to concern yourself with, just lead the way to you room."

She sighed a little, "okay, it's not too far from here."

woosh

Ten minutes later Kagan and Zihana were inside the small room Zihana claimed as her own.

"Kinda small isn't it?" he said looking around.

She gave him a evil look of doom, them smiled sweetly, "Don't worry, it'll look bigger from your spot on the floor," she pointed, "right there to be exact."

She tossed him a blanket and her extra pillow, "those are you're bed... I've got a few personal errands to run and then I've got class. You just stay here, maybe take a nap or something. I'll come back here when I'm done and then we'll go to dinner together. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you in a few hours. I'm going to sleep." He gave a small silent yawn.

"okay just wait until I leave or I'll be stuck in here, I can't walk over you in this dress unless I wanna trip over you."

He grinned, "How could you trip over me?"

She rolled her eyes, "You're big... I'm small... You're going to sleep on the floor... there's only like 5 feet of space on the floor... I can't walk over you cause this dress is too tight to allow me to spread my legs over the 5 feet of space that you fat butt will taking up." she sighed, sometimes he was just too stupid too stand.

"The floor?" He laughed.

"Yeah, the floor, you know... where you'll be sleeping." she was getting bored of his game.

He laughed again, "Oh, I'm not going to be sleeping on the floor."

She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head, "oh, really? Then where exactly?"

He smiled and pointed to her bed.

"You're _not_ sleeping in my bed!" she crossed her arms over her chest and stamped her foot on the floor.

"You're not going to be here to use it..." He smiled and tossed his pillow and blanket on the bed.

"You won't even fit! You'll break it!"

He laughed again, "If I'll fit in that small about of space on the floor I'll fit in the bed, you just go so that you're not late. Come and pick me up for dinner."

"Oh, fine... you win, I"ll see you in about 4 hours. And if you do end up breaking my bed I'll so hurt you!" she pointed accusingly at him.

He simply shook his head and laid down on the small bed, pulling his pillow under his head and the light blanket over himself he found a comfy position to sleep in.

She went to the little desk and pulled out her books and supplies, "Alright, I'll see you later."

"Okay, tell Enos that I said hi."

She beamed, "Okay!" she gathered all her things in her arms trying to properly balance everything.

When she got herself situated she called to Kagan, "Okay, so just don't make a lot of noise and if you wake up before I get back just stay here and, I don't know, read or something."

"Are you listening to me?" She asked outraged, walked up to him she found that he was already asleep.

She shrugged, "Nice nap!" she smiled, waved at his sleeping form and quietly left the room.

end ch 3!!!

this is now totally noncannon! Lol, i've had to change things around to make my story work, but I don't care! Yuna and company are going to come in the next chapter or two, so it's going to get real interesting really fast! Sorry if this chapter was boring, I needed to expand on kagan and Zihana's relationship for later chapters (and for anyone weird out there, no not in a romantic sorta way, like family not lovers...besides she's 11!). I also wanted to give her a friend her own age(I'm really happy with Avan, he's a cool character!) and make Kagan more of a dimensional character and make him kinda more aware of what's going on around him. Give him more of a personality. And yeah, I know he's ooc at times, but that's cause he's Kagan and not auron, they're two different people in my story... well they were once one person, but now they're two. Thanks to some unfulfilled promises and crazy seymour. Any who, review and tell me what you think, I'm not too happy with this story and I want to abandon it, I think it's crappy and has run its course.


	4. Chapter 4

Means to an End

Chapter 4

By: Shironami

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Final Fantasy or any of its characters. I do own Enos, Zihana and any other lame OC's that appear in this fanfiction. I'm not making any money off this story, it's just for fun... cause I have no life.

**(Insert cool page break here!)**

Zihana smiled when Enos told her that they were done for the day. She started to pack up all her things.

Enos smiled at her, "Let's go get Kagan, hopefully he didn't get into any trouble while you were gone."

"Naw, he was out like light when I left him. We'll probably have to wake him up. He was out before I was even done talking to him."

Enos nodded, "I'm not surprised, that was a lot of activity for his first day awake. He should feel better now that he's rested. Let's go."

She happily hopped up from her spot behind the small wooden desk. And slung her pack over her shoulder and headed for the door, Enos right behind her.

They walked side-by-side down the dark, gray halls of the servants' area, headed back to Zihana's room.

She pushed open the door and they walked to the bed, "Amazing, he sleeps so heavily." Enos referred to the sleeping form on the bed. He was still on his side, his arms around the pillow, not moving a muscle.

Kihana leaned forward onto the bed and looked into his face, "It doesn't even look like he's breathing!" she whispered to Enos.

Enos turned around fast, "What do you mean he's not breathing!? He should be just fine, I healed him myself... here, move let me take a look at him."

She shifted to the left a little making room for the older man.

Enos knelt down besides Kagan and looked deep into his face, it _did_ look like he wasn't breathing. His body was completely still, not a single muscle was moving. Worried Enos reached out to the young man and put his long, slightly gnarled fingers on the kid's wrist, trying to find his pulse.

"What are you doing to him?" Zihana whispered, interrupting what the old man was doing.

Enos turned his head with a smile on his deeply lined face, "Checking for his pulse, he's got one. He's alive still." Enos leaned in again and checked to see if in fact he was breathing or not. He smiled at Zihana again, "it's shallow, and very slow, but he's breathing. This might just be how he sleeps. Anyway, let's wake him up-"

"Oh, let me!" She lunged towards him ready to violently wake him.

"NO!" Enos whispered to her, catching her before she lunged on the sleeping form, "you don't know how he'll react if wake him up like that. We don't want to scare him. Be gentle with him, he's been though a lot before he came to us."

She frowned, "He has? Like what?"

"It's none of your business. Just gently wake him," he put an emphasis on gently. He didn't know what kind of reaction Kagan would have if he was jolted awake, would he be violent or scared or just wake up normally? Would being pulled from sleep with no warning put him in a state of shock and make him remember his death, if that was the case would he try to attack him and the child?

Zihana slowly pulled herself close to Kagan, sitting on the bed beside him, "Kagan," she whispered to him, "wake up, it's time to go to dinner." She gently patted his shoulder, waiting for him to stir.

She patted him a few more times while calling his name, "He's hard to wake up, maybe we should just bring him some leftovers on a plate for him to eat later. I don't think the chef will mind much."

Enos thought for a second, "You know, I think you're right. It's best if he doesn't eat with all the others anyway, we just need to make sure that we bring something back for him. I've known the chef since he was a boy, I can talk him into making a take-home plate for Kagan. I'll just tell him that he's not feeling well and we want him to stay away from everyone else so they don't get sick too. That's believable, Lord Seymour wants as little contact between Kagan and the others as it is."

Zihana laid down next to Kagan putting her head on his arm, "Is Lord Seymour going to hurt him."

Enos sighed, this was the question he had been dreading answering since he realized himself that the Guado Lord could be planning something unfortunate.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. He shook his head, "I hope not."

She pulled herself closer to Kagan's body, "Me too."

"Come on, we don't want to be late," he turned to the door.

She sighed and patted Kagan's arm then pulled herself up off the bed and followed Enos out the door.

**(yay for lame page breaks!) **

Kagan woke up after what felt like hours. With no way of telling what time it was, he decided it was best to just wait until Zihana came back to drag him off to dinner. He stayed stretched out on the bed staring up at the ceiling trying to remember what it was he had been dreaming about. He found it irritating that he couldn't remember, he knew it was something. But as soon as he woke the visions and auditory apparitions had faded into oblivion Falling back deep into his subconscious; just out of reach to tease him, drifting down in front of his mind where he thought they was close enough that he could touch the images dancing around in his imagination, only to poof away when he he reached out to them.

Aggravated with his inability to remember his elusive dream he pulled himself up off the bed and surveyed the room in more depth. It was small, the bed was small with a pink, handmade quilt that was decorated with little flowers, _I thought she hated pink? _He questioned to himself.

He walked over to the impossibly small desk and flipped though the papers that were strewn about the top of the dulled surface. It was written in a language he was unable to read. He pushed the papers aside and sat down on the top of the tinny desk, crossing his arms over his chest, he wondered how long before the kid came back.

After a good ten minutes he yawned widely and scratched his head. Bored with just sitting he hopped off the desk and walked to the side of the room he hadn't been to yet. He looked at the small dresser, pulling open a few of the drawers he found a assortment of small clothes he took to be Zihana's. He closed the drawers and played with a few of the trinkets that graced the top of the dresser.

He walked a few feet to the right and stood in front on a long elaborate mirror, it was taller than he was with detailed scroll work that weaved in and out of its self around the perimeter of the mirror.

He looked into the reflection in the surface of the mirror. He studied the young man staring back at him, he was young- more than likely in his 20's, the arms were shorter than the guado's, he wondered if that was normal. The legs were long, so was the torso, he pushed the hood the rest of the way off his head. He was amazed at how different he looked, he didn't think the looked that weird, if the image in front of him was truly him, then Zihana had been right, he did look... how did she put it, 'freaky'. The long hair hair hung loose, cascading down the back like a glossy dark waterfall in the middle of the night. The forehead didn't have the markings that was a prime characteristic of the Guado. The eyes where a steely, clear gray, or eye really, as the one on the right had a deep, grotesque scar that began almost near the hairline and ran over the eye and down the cheek, the wound that had created the scar rendered it useless and unable to even open. The skin wasn't fair with subtle undertones of blues and greens like the Guado's were, it was darker and had an undertone of pale brown. The man in the mirror looked tall, taller than most Guado he'd seen, was this man in the mirror really him, or was is some illusion make to think this was him. Did he really look like that? The clothes that the man wore were she same as the ones he had on.

He turned to take another look at the back of the man in the mirror just as Zihana came back.

He smiled at her, "Time for dinner?"

"Yep, um... why are you preening in front of the mirror?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Preening?" He questioned.

Zihana pointed to the mirror, "You're like, I don't know... just preening... making yourself look pretty."

"No I'm not. Why would I do that?"

"Then what are you doing prancing around in front of the mirror for?" She asked with her hands on her hips.

He laughed at her, "Prancing? I'm not prancing, I was just looking in this thing."

"Alright, but why?"

He simply shrugged off her question and asked, "Is that me?" He pointed to the reflection in the mirror.

She gave him one of her looks, "Yes..." she answered slowly not sure if he was being serious or just playing one of his games with her.

He silently turned back to the image in the mirror.

"Why?" she asked as he once again studied his reflection in the glass surface.

"I just... wasn't totally sure..." he stayed silent for a while, Zihana put the food on the bed and walked to him, "I didn't think I looked so different then the others."

"Well, yeah. You're not Guado," she responded baffled that he didn't even know what race he was.

He frowned, "I remember Enos telling me that now, but for some reason I just though I kinda was. If I'm not Guado then what am I?"

"You're human. A Yevonite I'm guessing, you don't look Al Bhed, your eyes are too dark. And you don't speak their language." she was thinking with her finger against her chin again.

"Human? That's why I look so different?" He absentmindedly touched his forehead.

"Yeah, you're human."

"Do all humans look like me?" He asked.

"Yeah... well, no. Yes and no. Humans are like the Guado, they mostly look the same but have little things like coloring and stuff that makes them able to tell each other apart."

"But they have short arms and little hands and no forehead marks and things of that nature, correct?" He was still frowning.

She nodded, "Yeah, they all look like that. They have different hair colors and skin colors, some are tall, short, thin, fat... stuff like that."

He didn't say anything while he paced the small room tuning every five or six steps when he came upon a wall to go back the way he came.

Zihana began to count how many times he crossed the small room, when she got to 28 she stopped him, "Hey, I brought you some food from dinner. Enos wanted to come with me to give it to you but Lord Seymour had some things he wanted him to do."

She pulled him the few steps to the bed and picked up the glass dish, "Here, this is for you. It's really good. I was surprised, I didn't think it would taste all that good cause it looks kinda gross but it's great."

He took the dish and utensil she handed him, "Thanks, it smells better than it looks." he smiled a bit at her.

"Why didn't you just wake me so I could go with you?" He gave her a skeptical look, "Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?" He laughed.

"No, of course not. I tried to wake you up, but I couldn't. You just kept on sleeping so I figured it was best to leave you cause you were so tired."

She sat on the little bed and he sat besides her. She began to talk about all the things things that had happed while he was sleeping. First about her lessons with Enos, then about how he slept like the dead, and finally about the dinner conversations that were tossed around the large, wooden table by the mansion servants.

He sat listening attentively as she rattled on about all sorts of things as he slowly ate his supper.

Half way through his meal the door opened again, the old man came hobbling in through the door, leaning heavily on his cane.

He gave Kagan a warm smile, "Ah, you're awake, good. And eating too. To tell you the truth, I was a little worried when we couldn't wake you up. But it seems that you were simply tired."

Kagan smiled back, "Yeah, I feel much better now. I didn't realize how sleepy I was."

Enos smiled and nodded. Kagan got up and offered the old man his spot, "Thank you, I believe somewhere along the road I've gotten old. I'm just not sure where, it seems like only yesterday Zihana was just a baby. But that was quite a long time ago," he laughed, "and even then I was old... just not _as_ old."

Zihana shook her head, "You've been old for decades now... don't try to fool anyone."

Kagan smiled but gave her arm an unnoticeable nudge with his elbow; silently telling her to mind her words.

She countered this with a little side-glance, her eyes narrowed and brows drawn together.

Unpleased that his warning went unheeded, he gave her a little glare and briefly shook his head no.

She gave him a pout and slumped her shoulders, the look her gave her was almost frightening, she had to remind herself later not to let him around any little kids as he might scare them.

Enos then turned to them again after rearranging the papers on her little desk, he held up a small stack that had fallen out of the bag when she tossed it on the desk when she came in, "Remember, you need to do these before tomorrow. You've got plenty of time so I don't want to hear any excuses tomorrow if they don't get done."

She sighed, "Alright, I'll do them before I go to bed." she rolled her eyes as she said it.

Enos nodded, "Good, see that you do... I'm not so old as to forget you saying that tomorrow."

"Yet..." she whispered under her breath.

Kagan turned and gave her another glare.

She spared him a glance as soon as she felt him look at her, _Scary!_ She thought and gave him a big, sweet smile that would have fooled anyone into believing she was cute and innocent unless they knew her.

He simply raised a skeptical eyebrow at her, _ Yeah, that's what I thought._ He mused to himself with a smirk.

Enos frowned at the nonverbal communication that was suddenly taking place between his two charges, _They must be getting close and understand each other well to be able to communicate without the use of words. _ He laughed silently to himself, _It almost seems that he's punishing her, well I welcome that with open arms, sometimes she's just too much for me to handle alone._

Enos smiled at Kagan, "I'll see if we have any extra futons around the manor, sleeping on the floor is too uncomfortable. Let me go talk to one of the maids, they know where all that extra stuff is kept." He smiled at the duo on the bed and left the room once more.

Zihana turned to Kagan, "You don't have to be so mean!"

"Me being mean, you're the one disrespecting Enos. You need to be kinder to him. He's taken care of you for a long time when he had no responsibility to do so." He was still sitting on the bed, his voice calm and collected a steady stream of deep gravely words.

She frowned at him, "Ah... fine... I do what ever you want just stop looking at me with that scary, mean face!"

He laughed out loud, "What mean, scary face?"

"That one you kept giving me earlier! I don't like it so don't ever do it again. It's scary and makes you look evil." she pouted at him as if that would assure that he would do what she wanted him to do.

He gave her a blank look, "..."

She gave him a bigger pout and decided to throw in a set of puppy dog eyes to up the ante, "But, it scares me..."

He sighed a little, closed his eyes then after a few seconds slowly opened them again, "What are you doing with your face?"

She frowned at him, "I'm pouting... it's supposed to make you feel bad. Make you do what I want you to do. Enos says I shouldn't use it to get what I want, he calls it a guilt trip and that I should feel bad when I do it," she smiled, "but I don't."

He rolled his eyes at her, "Yeah, well it's not working so knock it off. Makes you look funny, and it kinda creeps me out."

"Oh, does it? Poor baby!" She laughed at him.

He smacked her upside the back of her head, "You think I'm joking, I'm not. Okay, how about this: I won't make the 'scary' face if you won't make that stupid looking face at me, alright?"

She heaved a sigh at him, "I guess, but how are you not going to make that scary face when you don't know what that scary face is?"

He gave her a smile, "Hey, lookit that! You're getting smarter already!" He laughed again, "Just tell me if I do that face and I'll stop. Simple as that, yeah?"

She scanned him up and down, give him a look of utmost scrutiny, "Hm...I guess that will work. And just so you know, I am just as smart as you. Don't treat me like some little kid. Give me some credit!"

"Fine, fine... whatever." He gave her a dismissive wave of his hand.

She was about to give him a rebuttal when Enos walked in carrying an arm load of bedding.

Kagan hopped up, "Here give me those, you shouldn't be carrying them." He reached out to take the bundle from Enos.

"Ah, thank you. I brought some other clothes for you too. A few more sets of robes and some sleeping clothes too. The maid was too busy to help me bring them here." He reached into his robe and pulled out a small, square of cloth and wiped his forehead, "You can make the bed on the floor when you're ready to sleep."

Kagan smiled and nodded, "Thank you for the bedding."

Enos nodded, putting his fabric back into the pocket of his robes, he turned to Zihana, "Remember: Homework!"

He smiled at Kagan, "Well, goodnight, it's late... I'm getting tired and old; I need sleep." He laughed a little.

He then waved goodnight at Zihana, "Sleep well child, you're going to need it. As far as I've heard, Lady Yuna and her Guardians should be here tomorrow, late morning at the speed they seem to be traveling at. Lord Seymour's going to want you to wake early and help make the manor spotless for his guests." he tuned to face Kagan, "I'm not sure but my best guess is that he's going to want you to make yourself scarce."

Kagan just nodded with a smile on his face, "Yeah, I figured as much as soon as you said the Summoner was coming."

"Wait, you mean he's not going to be with me tomorrow?" Zihana said with a sad face to Enos.

The old man shook his head, "I'm afraid not, but don't worry, tomorrow you'll be so busy you won't even notice that he's gone. And when every thing's all ready for Lady Yuna you can come back here. Lord Seymour doesn't want the servants to be seen."

She frowned, "Okay, but why are they making such a big deal about her coming here? We get Summoners quite often, specially lately."

"She is royalty, her father was High Summoner Braska. She's a very important person. Besides, I've heard that Lord Seymour plans to ask her to be his bride... it might just be a rumor though. We'll see what happens tomorrow. For now, just finish your school work and go to sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. Good night, I'll see you both tomorrow."

They waved goodbye and said their good-nights to the old man as he exited through the door.

As soon as the door shut Zihana pounced on Kagan, grasping the front of his robes, gently shaking him, "See! It's not just the servants... Enos head about it too! That'd be soo cool! A wedding! I can't wait!" She kept shaking him until he pulled her off him.

He sighed and rolled his eyes at her, "Enos already told us that it might not even be true. Just wait, it might be just rumors. And they possibility of a wedding may not even take place here. Seymour's a Maester, the wedding might be in the temple. It's too small here to accommodate all the people that would be invited."

Her face feel, "Oh...," her face brightened again, "Well we'd be invited wouldn't we?"

He bit his bottom lip, "I doubt it... we're not important enough to be there. Not even to help set up for it. The temple's people would do that."

She pouted again, "Hey! You're doing that face again!" He laughed.

"I wanna go to the wedding!" She pulled at his robe again.

He gave her a smile and ruffled her hair, "Just think of it as a day or two off! Assuming he's planning on asking her in the fist place and assuming that if he does she says yes."

She pushed his hand off her pink head, "I hope he does, it'd be nice to have her around, I hear she's super nice. Her niceness might rub off on Lord Seymour!"

He shook his head at her then pulled her up and pushed her to the desk, "Work, now. Get it done." he smiled at her.

She frowned at him, "That's not fair! I don't need you to boss me around either, the Geezer does that enough."

"Yeah, yeah... just do it." he said as he rolled his futon out on the floor.

She glared at him, "I'm going to change clothes in the bathroom, just keep working. The sooner you finish the sooner you'll be done."

She frowned as she turned back to her work.

He gathered up his clothes and went to the connected bathroom.

"Wow... the sooner I finish the sooner I'll be done, I never would have guessed." she whispered sarcastically under her breath.

"I heard that!" He said loudly from the other side of the door.

She shot a scathing look towards the door and went back to work.

By the time she was just finishing up Kagan emerged from the bathroom, "Man, that took you forever. What were you doing in there?"

He smiled serenely, "I took a shower. I figured if I was going to put on clean clothes, I'd might as well be clean too."

"Yeah?" she giggled, "You smell like peaches and mint!"

He sighed, "Well, I'm sorry you didn't have anything more manly." He gave her a wicked smile, "I've smelt worse. Much worse..."

Zihana gave him a dubious look, "Well, I'm done with my work, so I'm going to get ready for bed. You better have not used up all the hot water!"

He shook his head no, "I took a cold shower."

Her eyes went wide, "Why!? It's so cold!"

"Yeah cold is the opposite of hot," he smiled at her knowing it would annoy her, "I don't like hot showers..." he continued, "you get out and you're all hot and it's like you didn't shower in the first place." he shrugged a little, running his finger through his long black hair to untangle it.

"You are so weird. Really, really weird. I'll be back."

He smiled, "Now you're threatening me?"

"Oh, my god," she said shutting the door behind her, "You're such a weirdo... and a dork!" she called from the other side of the door.

He smiled and pulled his hair into a ponytail. He then laid down on his futon and cracked open the book he'd found, hoping that it would catch his interest. The back of his mind working to figure out the puzzle of names and people that he heard that peaked a part of his barely-existent memory in a way that nothing else so far had. Braska and Yuna... he'd heard those names before... somewhere. He hoped that he could see the woman just once to see if he recognized her, maybe if he did it would wake up his sleeping memory. Although deep inside he knew it wouldn't, he had the same brain as always but something else was missing that would allow him access to those hidden tomes of memory.

There was one thing he was sure of: tomorrow was going to be a very interesting day.

As he tried to keep his interest in the thick book he was reading Zihana came out of the bathroom.

She looked down at him he was folded into his blanket, resting on his side with a book propped open with one hand.

"What are you reading?" she asked leaning down to see the title.

"I don't even know anymore. I feel like I've been reading the same line for the last five minutes. I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure that this is the most boring thing I've ever read." He finally gave up and tossed the book to the desk on the other side of the room, it landed with a soft _thump_ on the top of the desk and slid a little before coming to a stop just before it toppled to the floor.

"Yeah, all the books in here are boring, well there is a few that are good. They're over there," she pointed to the small bookshelf above the desk.

He focused on the books she was pointing at, "I cannot read the words on those, I've looked at them already."

"You have? Well I guess you wouldn't' be able to read them, they're in ancient Guado. Enos made sure that I knew how to read in the language of our ancestors, he said it was important. He said that if the older generations didn't teach our heritage to the new ones then our ways and history would die out."

He nodded, "I can see how that would make sense." He pulled his blanket around him tighter and snuggled into his futon.

Zihana got up and went to her dresser, "What are you doing?" He asked her.

"Nothing!" she answered defensively.

He laughed at her, "Are you hiding something?"

"NO! You just mind your own business and go to sleep." she was now digging through her drawer looking for something.

"Okay, now you're just lying." he laughed.

She glared daggers at him, "Stop being mean." She pulled something out and stuffed it under her arm.

"What's that?" He asked pointing to where she had stuffed something under her arm.

She made a small growling noise, "Fine, here...," she pulled the mysterious object from under her arm and shoved it into his face.

He smiled at the yellow thing in his face, "Is that what I think it is?" He laughed.

"Stop laughing, it's not funny." She crossed her arms over her chest.

He lunged out to her and took the small yellow thing from her, "HEY!" She yelled at him.

She tried to grab it back before he got more of a chance to make fun of her, "Give it back, it's mine!"

He hopped up and held it above her head as she grasped his arm and bounced up and down trying to take it back from him.

He held her at arms length and examined the small thing in further detail.

It was small, fluffy, soft and yellow... He laughed out loud, "It's a stuffed Chocobo!"

She gave up trying to get it back and flopped on her bed angrily, "Are you done yet?"

He smiled, "No... what's with this thing anyway?"

"Nothing... just give it back."

He tossed it to her, "So you're not really going to tell me why you have that thing?"

She caught it and stuffed it under her pillow, "Nope, it's none of your business."

He smiled, "Then can I ask you about the pink bed spread?"

She gave him a look that could kill, "I didn't pick it out. It was here when I got here. As for the stuffed animal, you just pretend you didn't see it."

"You sleep with that thing don't you?" He smiled.

She pulled the blanket up to her chin, "Good night." she said curtly as she curled her arm around the stuffed Chocobo and faced the wall so that Kagan couldn't see her.

He just smiled, "yeah, see you in the moring...Chocobo Girl," he chuckled as he heard her make a small growly noise.

He settled back into his futon and closed his eyes, still slightly apprehensive about tomorrow.

**that's the end of chapter 4!!! WEEE!**

** I wasn't really happy with this chapter, so I hope you liked it more than I did. If you have any ideas and suggestions to help me write better let me know, I could use the help, thanks for reading. **

**  
A special thanks to Atticus620 for giving me the encouragement to continue this story. And a big thanks to all my other reviewers and readers. I'm not going to update this story till I get 4 more reviews, it's mean I know, but I want feed-back and I'm not getting it. If you want to read then review. It's simple...**

**okay, next chapter is going to be very interesting, Yuna and her Guardians are coming to Guadosalam!!! What will happen, will Kagan run into Auron!? If he does what will the older Guardian do!?!?!?!?! Will Seymour ask Yuna to Marry him, what will she say? And will Tidus throw another hissy fit!? If you want to know review and I'll update!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Lol, sorry… this chapter's a rewrite! Didn't do it on purpose, I thought this was where I left off so I continued to write the half done chapter only to find I'd already posted it… well I like this one better! So blah haha**

Means to an End

Chapter 5 (again)

By: Shironami

He wasn't sure what time it was or how close to morning, but it felt like he had been tossing and turning for hours trying to get back to sleep. When he did sleep he had strange dreams that he didn't understand. Sighing, he finally got up, grabbed a fistful of clothes and changed in the bathroom.

He rolled up his futon and slipped it under the bed, Zihana was sleeping on her back with the pink quilt thrown half way on the floor, he chuckled, she was still clinging to that stuffed animal. He picked the quilt up from the floor and placed it back over her still form.

He pulled his boots on and quietly left the room. He wondered around the gray, almost sad looking halls of the servants' area, no one was around and it was silent, he could hear his heart beating in his chest and the sound of his breathing, he didn't know why but it was starting to annoy him.

Finding his way up to the red halls of the mansion gave way to voices and hurried footsteps. He bumped into people he didn't even knew lived there and was given stern looks and rough shoves as he accidentally collided with people.

Anxious to get away from the crowd he hurried to the main part of the mansion, the banquet hall was deserted and the noise of the people just below him disappeared. He walked to the giant round table and grabbed some food. He noticed that it was different fare than what was on it yesterday. _What a waste. Did they throw the food that was here yesterday out?_ He thought to himself as he bit into a strange looking piece of fruit.

He froze as he heard a familiar voice speaking off to his right, he pulled himself to the other side of the giant table. Wondering what they were talking about.

"-and make sure that everything is ready for when Lady Yuna arrives. I don't believe she suspects anything and I want everything to be perfect, she will not refuse."

"Yes, my Lord. Everything has been planned out and taken care of, in fact most of the staff is already preparing for her arrival," said Tromell as he bowed to Seymour.

The Guado Lord nodded in approval, "Get Enos to wake the girl, I have a few errands for her to do before our guests arrive."

"Of course Lord Seymour."

"Oh, and make sure that none of the servants or staff's around when they arrive, that would be unseemly," he turned without another word to Tromell and began to walk out of the large room.

Kagan walked around the table as Seymour came his way to hide out of view, sure that he was the last person that the Guado lord wanted to see. When he was gone Kagan turned to where Tromell had been standing only to find he was hobbling through the door to the underside of the mansion.

Kagan deeply frowned, Zihana was happy about the possible union but he was very unsure and was distrusting of Seymour. He sat on one of the long red benches that followed the round, wide walls of the expansive room on either side. He let out a deep, slow sigh; his head dropped into his hands, he was more confused than ever and the thing that bothered him the most was his inability to do anything about it.

As he sat there trying to decide what would be the best course of action to take he heard a very familiar voice calling him out of the endless, tortured circle of twisting, almost pointless thoughts, "Kagan? What are you doing up here? I trust no one saw you?"

He smiled, happy to have the distraction and company. Just as he was about to say hello a thought struck him, after a very brief pause, "Hello Enos, I was just exploring and no, no body has seen me… well," another tiny pause, "no one important."

Enos was about to ask just who of these "not so important" people _did_ see him when the younger man cut him off, "Lord Seymour _is_ going to ask that Lady Yuna to marry him… do you think that's a good idea?" He was hoping for some sound advice, the man was old, but wise and new Seymour better than he did.

"Now, you should know that that's just a rumor. We don't know what he's planning and when he does choose to tell anyone it's probably not going to be us. So do every one a favor and don't add to the chaos of false stories."

Kagan shook his head, "No, it's not a rumor; I heard Seymour talking to that old man and he told him to have everything ready for when she arrives."

Enos stroked his long, white beard, "Hmm… did he say he was going to propose?"

Kagan looked up sheepishly, scratched the back of his head and quietly said, "Well… not exactly. He just said to have everything ready for when she arrives. It sounded like he's planning on it."

Enos leaned heavily on his old cane, thinking intensely, "Well, even if he is, there is nothing we can do about it; so it's best to just do what he wants and hope everything works out well."

"But do you think it's a good idea. He seems a little unhinged, I'm not sure if he's safe to be alone with," he frowned, "I'm worried."

"To tell you the truth, I am as well. I have been ever since Lord Jyscal died suddenly. I was his healer and he was not sick. For all intents and purposes he should be alive right now," he sighed heavily again, "but, he's not."

Kagan frowned, "How did he die?"

The old man seemed to age an additional 20 years, the weight of his knowledge settling down upon his shoulders, " I cannot be sure, but I'm almost certain that he was murdered by Lord Seymour."

Kagan's eyes widened and his mouth dropped a little, he stood and started pacing, the old man keep silent a while longer to let the appalling announcement settle into the younger man's mind.

Kagan lifted his head, his gaze dropped to meet Enos' steady stare, "But why? Why do something like that? What would it accomplish?"

Enos slowly shook his head, easing himself down on the red bench, "I don't know what he's planning, but his father must have been in his way…" the old man was about to continue but stopped.

Kagan waited, it seemed like there was more to what he was saying but he was holding it back. Kagan gave him an imploring look, hoping to finally get some answers that would ease his worry and anxiety a little more.

The old man shook his head, wondering if he should even be delving into this at all. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, thinking this was bound to come up sooner or later and that he might as well clear his conscience, "Lord Seymour murdered his father, for what reason I do not know. But I do know this: he's worked you into his plan as well. I have no idea what he's going to do with you, but be careful. He's become warped and dangerous, I fear that his intentions towards you are ill," he closed his eyes as Kagan sat heavily down beside him.

"So, that means that he brought me here," Kagan concluded, "why don't I remember anything?"

Enos knew it was going to go this way, he found no reason to tell him the truth; he no longer was the person he used to be. If he didn't remember why confuse his more. Besides he was alive and well now, the man he used to be was dead, his new life didn't have to have anything to do with the old.

Enos decided that if he couldn't let the Legendary Guardian die in peace and honor like he deserved, he would make sure his charge lived without the interference of his unknown persona.

Enos put his hand on the others shoulder, "Yes, he did bring you here, and in very bad shape too… I didn't think you'd survive. I don't know why you have no memories, I always thought that with enough time they'd come back to you. Especially with how fast you recovered and relearned things."

Just lay low today, I don't want anything to go wrong. And I think Lord Seymour wants you to stay out of view for today," Enos sighed, getting up, "I think it might be best for you to stay in the room for now. I'm sorry but I must leave, I have to find Zihana now. She has chores that need to be tended to."

"Yeah, alright. I'll talk to you later." Kagan said as he played with one of the sleeves of his robe.

The old man nodded at him, "Zihana or I will bring your meals to you. I'm sure this will all be over tomorrow."

Kagan's gaze rose up from his feet, "If Seymour gets married will his bride live here with us? He won't want her to see me, so will I always be stuck in that room?" His brow furrowed.

"I do not know the answer to that. I'm not even sure she will say yes. I think the best thing for now is just to sit and wait to see what happens. I'm confident things will work themselves out in the end. Worrying about it won't do anything to help us now."

Kagan nodded in agreement, "You're right, but it's no less frustrating. I hate not knowing what's happening, let alone what to do about it."

Enos closed his eyes heavily, "Yes, I'm just as frustrated as you are. But unfortunately there is little either of us can do about it right now. We'll keep our senses sharp and pay closer attention to Lord Seymour. If we can figure out what he's up to we might be able to stop him. We must not make the mistake of underestimating him. If he is capable of murdering his own father, I doubt he'd have many qualms about killing others either,"

Enos sighed deeply truly unsure of what to do next.

The two of them sat in quiet for a few moments, the silence was profound, but not awkward.

Enos rubbed his sore temples. Guilt was nagging at his insides, he wanted nothing more for this young person to live the life he deserved, unencumbered by the life he once had and had chosen to abandon for the good of the people of Spira. That man had forcefully been brought back to life, he was given a second chance to live the life he'd lost so long ago. Enos felt it was his duty to protect this lost Guardian, but he felt like he should tell him the truth, dispite the fact that he felt it was against his better judgment.

He was sure it was just going to confuse him needlessly and divulging his unknown past would probably just hurt him in the long run, he was happy being Kagan. What was more was Zihana was utterly attached to him, he was sure she saw him as an older brother or possibly even a father figure. Enos was sure losing him to his past life would do more harm than good. He wasn't sure if she'd recover from a blow like that, let alone what it would do the the young man himself. But he was a strong person, he was more worried about Zihana, he was all she had ever really had; for whatever reason she'd never really connected to anyone besides himself and the chef's son. Kagan was good for her, and she was good for him.

But to lie so completely to his face like this, he knew it was wrong. What made him feel even worse was the fact that he knew most of the answers Kagan had about himself. He finally decided to clear his conscience, no matter what consequences he had to face because of it.

He cleared his throat, "Kagan, there's something that's been on my mind that I believe I should tell you."

Kagan gave him a sincere smile, "What is it?"

"Well, you see-"

"HI!" Zihana cheerfully interrupted Enos, waving her arms at the two men, "I was worried about you, I woke up and you were gone!" She plopped down next to Kagan and hugged him around the neck, nuzzling him slightly. He smiled and patted her small, pink head hoping that she would let go before he ran out of air.

"Tromell talked to me in the hall, he needs me to help set up the Crazy Room, I need to go to the storage area and find the locked up spheres. I want Kagan to go with me," she turned to Enos, "can he? Pleeease!?"

She pleaded with her big, round eyes, Enos smiled serenely at her, "Well… I don't think that's such a good idea, but, if you both stay out of Lord Seymour's way and don't make trouble, I don't really see a problem with it, " he sighed, "just, _please_ don't make me regret this decision," he smiled and waved as the two walked, hand in hand, back through the wide red doors; he couldn't help but notice the look Kagan was giving him, it filled him with remorse and regret… but also relief, he wasn't sure if the man was ready to know the whole truth yet.

Enos decided it was best to feed his mind drop by drop, instead of dumping a lake over the lad's head. He still had time, he hoped.

He decided the best thing to do was to continue with his work and hope it worked out in the end. He was forming a plan and he was going to have sort it all out and having Kagan with Zihana was the best way to keep both of them out of trouble… in theory at least.


End file.
